Teacher's escape room app wins national award

A teacher has won a national competition after coming up with the idea to help computer science GCSE students with digital escape rooms.

Slough secondary school teacher Valli Krishnappan developed Logic MasterMind, a platform designed to boost student engagement.

She has been awarded £25,000 to further develop it from Let Teachers SHINE, a charity that rewards teachers who have innovative ideas to help disadvantaged children and young people.

She said: "Students like games. I feel like the escape room is a very good idea for holding students' attention in class, and I want teachers to use this in their classrooms as part of regular lesson activities."

Krishnappan is one of eight winners at this year's awards, and hopes her idea will make exam preparation more of an interactive experience.

Students using her Logic MasterMind platform solve rapid-fire questions and short challenges to unlock and progress through themed rooms. Each room represents a different topic on the curriculum.

It will be available to students both online and as a mobile app.

She said: "I hope the project will significantly improve students' fluency and exam performance, while also narrowing the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.

"This project would support disadvantaged learners because I could see, based on my experience, that usually they struggled with retrieval and cognitive load, especially under exam pressures."

The platform is being piloted with Year 10 and 11 students at Krishnappan's school.

"Longer term, I would like to develop a scalable model that can be shared across schools, supported by teacher training and clear impact data," she said.

She added: "I always dream big. I really want to make a difference when it comes to the teaching of GCSE computer science, so I'm looking forward to bringing my vision and concept to life and creating something truly impactful for the students."